Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
POLISH JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, cilt.33, sa.5, ss.1-8, 2024 (SCI-Expanded)
The Mediterranean region in Turkey is considered highly suitable for commercial queen bee rearing
due to its temperate climate characteristics. Therefore, in the research, the queens to be examined
in terms of quality criteria were obtained from commercial queen bee enterprises in Antalya, Mersin,
Adana, and Hatay provinces in the Mediterranean region. In April-May, 5 queen bees from each
of the 36 enterprises rearing queens were included in the study. Characteristics such as queen weight,
spermatheca volume and diameter, and spermatozoa stored in the spermatheca are considered quality
criteria, and the factors affecting them were evaluated on a total of 180 queens. Queens taken from
the enterprises were divided into three groups according to their weight; light (172.56±1.75 mg),
moderate (193.70±0.62 mg), and heavy (214.13±0.95 mg). The average spermatheca diameters
in the light, medium, and heavy groups were 0.982±0.006 mm, 1.053±0.002 mm, and 1.215±0.008 mm,
respectively. According to the average results obtained regarding the quality criteria in the study, it was
determined that 60.55% of the queens evaluated in the study (the heavy group) were at standard quality
levels. On the other hand, in the light and medium groups, it was observed that all values were below
the quality standard values. These results show that while evaluating the quality criteria in queen bee
breeding enterprises, selection can be made according to the weight of the queen bees.